The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kiddis a story about a young girl names Lily Owens based in South Carolina in the 1960’s. Lily had a good life, until she was four. In a tragic accident her mother was shot and killed, Lily’s father T-Ray blames Lily for her mothers death and is severely abusive for years after her mothers death.

 Lily however does have one woman who cares about her and her name is Rosaleen, she was the only motherly figure that Lily had in her life once her mother passed. One day on her way into town Rosaleen upset three white men, who were the most racist in their town, and gets arrested and thrown in jail. Lily gets into a fight with T-Ray and that was the final straw, she broke Rosaleen out of jail, and they ran away together to Tiburon, South Carolina because Lily’s mother wrote the name of that town on the back of a picture she had.

Growing up with both my mother and my stepfather I cannot fathom what if you be like to be in Lily’s shoes. Lily is a very strong character in my eyes because ever though her mother is dead and her father blames her for that she still manages to stay strong and intuitive enough to look into her past and find out what her mothers story was.

The Secret Life of Bees has to be one of the most enjoyable books I have read, it was one of those books that you pick up and you just cannot stop reading. Lily meets three black sisters while in Tiburon May, June and August, they take her in and teach her the art of Bee-keeping. She soon learns that her mother also stayed in the Boatwright house before she died. May in my mind is like another mother figure for Lily, she is the levelheaded sister and she really takes good care of Lily. May is what some would call an emotional wreck, its like all the pain that the world feels she feels, it got to the point where May and August made a wailing wall for her so that when she is feeling the weight of the world she can go to the wall and it relieves her stress. When May was young her twin sister died which caused a great disturbance in her life. August does not like Lily from the start because when her mother was in their house she did not like her either. It is August who reveals to Lily that T-Ray was not lying when he told her that her mother left her when she was little.

Overall The Secret Life of Bees was my favorite book. I would highly suggest it to people of all ages. It’s a great book and a very addicting and easy read.